Tech News & Commentary

Microsoft debuts Office for iPad, no longer 'holding back'

Seven weeks into his tenure as Microsoft 's (MSFT) new CEO, Satya Nadella on Thursday showed there's a new sheriff in town by introducing a version of Microsoft's Office productivity software for Apple's (AAPL) iPad tablets.

He also pledged to make Office available to consumers and professionals on a host of mobile devices. Microsoft is "absolutely committed" to making its applications run great cross-platform, Nadella said. "There's no holding back of anything. It's about being able to excel everywhere our customers are," he said.

It's a strategic change for Microsoft, which previously reserved its Office software for its own mobile devices as a way to differentiate them from rival products. But with its Surface tablets badly trailing Apple and competitors using Google's (GOOG) Android operating system in the tablet market, Microsoft changed course.

Nadella outlined the company's "mobile first, cloud first" strategy during his first public appearance as CEO. The company held a press event in San Francisco to unveil its Office apps for iPad, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The apps are available to download for free, but users can only create and edit documents if they subscribe to Microsoft's Office 365 cloud computing plan.

Nadella took over for longtime CEO Steve Ballmer on Feb. 4. Microsoft's directors reportedly pressured Ballmer to step down because they didn't think he was moving fast enough to adapt the company to the mobile and cloud computing landscape.

Office for iPad had been widely expected, with news leaking out last week that it was official.

Nadella said Microsoft's No. 1 job is "to empower people to be more productive and do more across all devices." Microsoft's Office application is a central part of that and is used by 1 billion people worldwide, he said.

At the press event, Microsoft demonstrated accessing Office and other Microsoft apps from an iPad, iPhone and Samsung Android-based tablet.

Mobile and cloud are one aspect of the company's new go-forward strategy, Nadella said. The company will outline other aspects of the strategy over the next three or four weeks, he said. Next week, Microsoft executives will do a deep dive on the future of the company's Windows operating system at its Build conference in San Francisco.

"Our customers want to know where we are going and what is our innovation agenda," Nadella said.

At the press briefing Thursday, Microsoft also announced its Enterprise Mobility Suite, a comprehensive set of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on the devices people use.

Seven weeks into his tenure as Microsoft 's (MSFT) new CEO, Satya Nadella on Thursday showed there's a new sheriff in town by introducing a version of Microsoft's Office productivity software for Apple's (AAPL) iPad tablets.

He also pledged to make Office available to consumers and professionals on a host of mobile devices. Microsoft is "absolutely committed" to making its applications run great cross-platform, Nadella said. "There's no holding back of anything. It's about being able to excel everywhere our customers are," he said.

It's a strategic change for Microsoft, which previously reserved its Office software for its own mobile devices as a way to differentiate them from rival products. But with its Surface tablets badly trailing Apple and competitors using Google's (GOOG) Android operating system in the tablet market, Microsoft changed course.

Nadella outlined the company's "mobile first, cloud first" strategy during his first public appearance as CEO. The company held a press event in San Francisco to unveil its Office apps for iPad, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The apps are available to download for free, but users can only create and edit documents if they subscribe to Microsoft's Office 365 cloud computing plan.

Nadella took over for longtime CEO Steve Ballmer on Feb. 4. Microsoft's directors reportedly pressured Ballmer to step down because they didn't think he was moving fast enough to adapt the company to the mobile and cloud computing landscape.

Office for iPad had been widely expected, with news leaking out last week that it was official.

Nadella said Microsoft's No. 1 job is "to empower people to be more productive and do more across all devices." Microsoft's Office application is a central part of that and is used by 1 billion people worldwide, he said.

At the press event, Microsoft demonstrated accessing Office and other Microsoft apps from an iPad, iPhone and Samsung Android-based tablet.

Mobile and cloud are one aspect of the company's new go-forward strategy, Nadella said. The company will outline other aspects of the strategy over the next three or four weeks, he said. Next week, Microsoft executives will do a deep dive on the future of the company's Windows operating system at its Build conference in San Francisco.

"Our customers want to know where we are going and what is our innovation agenda," Nadella said.

At the press briefing Thursday, Microsoft also announced its Enterprise Mobility Suite, a comprehensive set of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on the devices people use.

Julia White, general manager of marketing for Microsoft's Office division, said Office for iPad isn't a simple port of the Windows version of Office to Apple's iOS. "It was uniquely created for the iPad," she said. That includes custom touch controls, such as the ability to highlight and simulate a laser pointer for PowerPoint presentations.

Microsoft's announcements were a positive development for the company, FBR analyst Daniel Ives said in a research note.

"Nadella indicated that Microsoft will focus on ensuring scalable cloud applications will be able to reach any device, as enterprises (and) customers demand ubiquitous access to important productivity applications," Ives said. "To this point, we believe the 'Nadella era' at Microsoft is off to a good start so far, as the software behemoth veteran appears to be showing openness in his strategy/vision while trying to steer away from the status quo, representing a breath of fresh air for investors."

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